Choosing The Right Shoe Can Keep You Healthy

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While walking shoes have been immersed into the fashion world over recent years, the numerous choices can be overwhelming for some. Most look beyond what a walking shoe is meant for and chose style over comfort.

Walking is the common form of exercise most people prefer doing, so finding the right shoe is one of the more important things to consider throughout your training progression.

‘Whatever your level of ability, the importance of finding the right shoe to walking is crucial for your health.’

Humans almost walk 5 times the circumference of the earth in an average lifetime. Yet we seldom pay attention to our feet and footwear despite them bearing the entire body weight and primary movers of the human body.

Things to Considerations While Finding the Right Walking Shoe

The foremost thing to look for in a shoe is stability. Good stability and cushioning throughout the range of movement of the walk are needed. Next, shoes should provide an easy push-off phase (basically the off phase of the walk). Finally, it should adequately fit especially around the heel and the midfoot with some room for toe-off in the forefoot for your comfort.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters when choosing the right shoes. Proper walking shoes are fundamental in maintaining correct walking technique, as well as preventing injuries. It maintains proper biomechanics of the foot as well as all the other joints connected to the foot while walking.

Benefits of Wearing the Right Shoe

: The benefits of a scientifically designed comfortable shoe surely outnumber the cost of investment around it. Repetitive issues of acute on chronic episodes of musculoskeletal issues of back pain, knee pain, foot pain, in fact even neck pain and headaches would come down if a wrong shoe was a cause for them. A simple footwear modification results in immediate relief of chronic knee and back issues.

The right pair of shoes help keep your body safe from injury. Shoes are undoubtedly facilitators of fitness. Without the correct fuel, you are likely to damage the engine of a car, similarly, without the right fit of the shoe, you are further prone to suffer severe injuries.

Good quality shoes made for wearers' feet, provide unique fit, and comfort. Every shoe breaks after constant usage as it ages. Every good quality shoe is built to last and stand the test of time. Researches show good footwear determines an individual's attitude as well.

Whenever a patient comes to doctors with any kind of head-to-toe issue, the first thing they check is his foot arch and the correspondingly worn shoe. 95% of the time they are a misfit, and thus a change of footwear immediately helps relieve the pain drastically by 30-40%.

Effects the Wrong Pair of Shoes Does to Body

Tight pointed shoes may cause corns, bunions, and other toe deformities such as hammer and claw toes, cross-over toes, and ingrown toenails. Great chances of falls in the elderly due to wrongly fit shoes.

High heels can cause back pain, headaches, ankle injuries, sprains, and plantar fasciitis. Wearing flat surfaces shoes, with little to no arch support, keeps the feet from functioning optimally and can lead to knee, hip, and back problems.

Lack of arch support is the commonest cause of a painful heel condition called plantar fasciitis advancing into a calcaneal spur at times. Wearing misfit footwear forces the joints of the body to compensate for the faulty foot angulators leading to a long-term functional and structural change in the body.

How to Select the Right Shoes?

The human feet tend to swell up as the day progresses, consequently, the foot is bigger in the evening compared to earlier in the day, thus measuring your foot size later in the day. Try the shoes with the type of socks that you wear regularly.

Online shopping tempts people to buy cheaper available options to look trendier regularly. But when it comes to feet, the quality of shoes matters more than the number of them stacked in the wardrobe.

While buying shoes, stand and check your feet size, as your foot will go for maximum stretch in this position. When you move your ankle up/ down, in and out, the shoe should not come out. You should be able to move your toe up and down.

Adequate padding is required at the same time a snug fit over the heel and midfoot helps to walk those miles at ease. A quick way to assess one's arch is to stamp on wet sand or draw your foot on a piece of paper. One can get a fair idea about the arch pattern.

If you have an injury history or aches and pains it is best to seek expert advice from a foot, ankle, or lower limb specialist such as Podiatrist to have a thorough musculoskeletal assessment and you can have a professional footwear prescription done through them.



Source: Medindia